Labour, Work and Architecture

Writings by the architectural critic Kenneth Frampton

This anthology of writings by the architectural critic Kenneth Frampton brings together his most influential essays from the last thirty-five years. The essays focus on twentieth-century architecture, dealing with themes and movements, built works and the architects responsible for these buildings.

Architecture in a broader cultural and historical context

The essays are presented in chronological order within three sections – Theory, History and Criticism – which together serve to situate modern architecture in its broader cultural and historical context. The anthology includes early critical reviews from the 1960s and 1970s analysing contemporary buildings, as well as lengthier pieces covering architecture and the ideological circumstances in which buildings are produced. As a collection, Labour, Work and Architecture is an important document in the historiography of twentieth-century architecture by a highly respected and readable scholar committed to the understanding and improvement of our built environment.

Aesthetic surface of buildings

For his entire career Mr. Frampton has looked beneath the aesthetic surface of buildings in search of deeper meanings…, wrote Paul Goldberger in the New York Times.

Kenneth Frampton

Kenneth Frampton is an internationally respected architectural critic who holds the Ware Professorship in Architecture at Columbia University, New York. He lectures extensively in the US and Europe, and has also written, edited and contributed to numerous publications on contemporary architecture. He is the author of Modern Architecture: A Critical History and Studies in Tectonic Culture.